A Villain's Survival Guide

"Leomaris and Lucius’s team emerged victorious. You have done a good job; I had expected some casualties."

Instructor Moon bore his usual terrifying presence, but something about him had shifted. He seemed almost relieved, like a man who’d had something lifted from him at last.

"As per my instructions, only the victors will be granted access to raid the Malice Rune Realm. However, I acknowledge your efforts. As a result, you will all be recognised as rulers of a Terror Rune Realm."

It was the first time any of them had seen anything close to a smile on him.

"Did you get any artifacts, or were you too focused on the mission to look for any?"

The cadets met him with silence. He didn’t look bothered. Instead, he brushed his hair backward and carried on.

"It is late. Aside from Leomaris and Lucius, the others will return to the academy tomorrow. Leomaris and Lucius, however, I recommend you rest and train further before I permit you to enter the Rune Realm."

When he spoke, Raine was quick to ask a question. "Can we stay around and train with them too? We can let them know what we learned from the raid."

Instructor Moon gave a slight motion of approval. "As long as it helps them raid the Rune Realm, I wouldn’t oppose it."

Leomaris narrowed his eyes. Every reason to believe Instructor Moon meant to kill him within the Malice Rune Realm, but what was driving it?

Leomaris was cursed by the Goddess, the same being Instructor Moon served with everything he had. Potentially the same person who’d wanted Rosay dead. That alone kept him in the crosshairs.

But what lay behind it all? Before the raid, Instructor Moon hadn’t wanted him dead, not initially, not the way he’d anticipated. That had changed somewhere along the way, and the Goddess’s curse was the most likely culprit.

So what had he wanted initially? Just to train him? Or was there something far bigger behind it?

Just now, Instructor Moon looked for all the world like a caring instructor, one who wanted nothing but his cadets’ growth. That was what threw Leomaris most of all.

Not that he could use his ability on Moon to dig out his secrets. As a Sorcerer, he had the means to read even those stronger than him, so long as they’d given him enough reason to be suspicious.

But perhaps he wasn’t thinking straight. He was struggling to hand-pick a legitimate suspicion from Instructor Moon’s actions, which was daft, given everything about the man reeked of it.

Still, that wasn’t the point.

The ability demanded one thing: if his actions were laid out before others, would they find them suspicious? If not, Leomaris was simply being paranoid.

Soon enough Instructor Moon dismissed them. Charlotte closed in on Leomaris almost immediately, her soulless dark eyes flickering as they met his for a brief moment. Then she bowed her head.

"I am sorry, Leomaris."

His confusion wore off soon enough. Leomaris managed an uncomfortable smile, didn’t know what to do with his hands, and settled for fiddling with his hair.

"You shouldn’t worry about that, Charlotte. I understand where you’re coming from. The mission meant everything to you."

When she raised her head, she was close to tears. She rubbed her nose, nodded her approval, and without looking at him again, slipped away.

Leomaris sighed. They were back at the abandoned village, and though the rumbling had eased with one of the portals closed, it hadn’t stopped entirely.

’I just need to be careful... that’s all.’

The wisest move was to give the Malice Rune Realm a wide berth. but running wasn’t something he could afford any longer. He had to face this head on and put an end to it.

He may not have known the exact source of the danger, but he was in it, and he didn’t need it spelled out. He was going to be careful.

— 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Raine’s POV:

A bit into the night, the entire place went quiet, only the rumbling ground persisting. When they’d first arrived, it hadn’t been much of a bother; they’d had a Rune Realm to raid and had spent the whole night planning instead of sleeping. Now, with nothing to fill the hours, the full weight of how terrible things were crept up on her.

She went outside to stare at the sky for a bit. There was no shortage of things to dwell on. But right across the street from her lodgings, an arrogant voice snagged her attention.

"You little... don’t you have any honour? You cut off Morpheus’s head, and you cannot even be bothered to apologise?"

Raine gave him a confused look, the name not landing at first, then she remembered. Morpheus was Alfred’s spirit dragon.

She sighed, her irritation already boiling over. "How naive are you? You nearly killed us, and you’re worried about your dragon losing a head? Doesn’t it have six? What’s wrong with losing one?"

"You—

Alfred tried to speak, veins standing out across his face, but one look from Raine shut him up. She wasn’t in the mood for nonsense, and he knew it.

He held his head high and walked away, disappearing into one of the rooms down the street.

Raine let out a long breath. She’d been on edge from the moment the "training" started. Not for herself, for Leomaris.

Months ago, one of the Calamities had tried to kill Leomaris. Now all of them were gathered here, and she was the only one among them who wasn’t one. Even through the raid, she’d been certain, whoever the culprit was, they’d use that advantage to finally have him killed. She’d never fought for herself. It had always been for Leomaris.

She walked a little further from where she stood, looking for a better spot to stare at the sky and have a moment to herself.

A short distance away, near what appeared to be a chapel, voices caught her attention. She spread her Divine Aura across the terrain without hesitation and pinpointed them almost instantly.

"That could have been the perfect moment for it..."

"Yes, but it was not. He may not appear so, but the boy is both tenacious and dangerous. He was cunning enough to threaten my Sovereign. That alone should keep us on constant vigilance."

"But do you think it is prudent to change plans now?"

"Yes. I realized he is far more dangerous than I thought."

Raine was hesitant, but the voices were too familiar to leave alone. She moved closer and soon enough spotted something that made her chest tighten. Lucius, with an irritated look on his face, and Instructor Moon, smiling throughout.